Snippets

Grammar Watch

Liberaly Party backbencher, Craig Kelly apologised for saying Russia’s role in the shooting down of Flight MH17 should be “slightly looked over.” I’ll say he should apologise! His careless statement has caused great distress among lovers of the English language. The phrase is over-looked, not looked over. You ‘look over’ a car if you’re planning to buy it. Whereas if you want to allow Putin to get away with blue murder, you over-look.. As for slightly, I guess that means you look but at the crucial moment, you just happen to look the other way. Shouldn’t they have an Grammar Test – if not an IQ test – for people entering Parliament

Grammar Watch 2

ABC News Breakfast. Millennial Journalist – Trump’s statements over Russia “SHED CONFUSION”. Excuse me, you can SHED LIGHT upon a subject, but the opposite is not to SHED CONFUSION. Confusion can be spread, but not shed. Light shedding is a specific idiom with which you cannot tamper..

Mark Twain sums up

“THERE were two “Reigns of Terror,” if we would but remember it and consider it; the one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood; the one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years; the one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons, the other upon a hundred millions; but our shudders are all for the “horrors” of the minor Terror, the momentary Terror, so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of swift death by the axe, compared with lifelong death from hunger, cold, insult, cruelty, and heart-break? What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake? A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief Terror which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over; but all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real Terror—that unspeakably bitter and awful Terror which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.”

― Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

A Law to Outlaw War?

On 17 July 2018 the international crime of aggression came into formal existence. In theory, political and military leaders of one state can now be tried for acts of aggression against another, and can be punished by the International Criminal Court (ICC). In theory only however, because the ICC cannot rule on a case unless both states parties agree to its jurisdiction, on either an ad hoc or a compulsory basis. The United Kingdom, Australia and many other states accept the jurisdiction of the ICC, but the United States does not

Cant take It Donald

If the Democrats want to beat Trump, they need to find a sobriquet that sticks. Hillary Clinton never shook off Crooked Hillary. There must be a suitable descriptor for Trump. Crooked Donald would be a good start. Dirty Donald comes to mind. Cruel Donald. Dopey Donald. I like Can’t-Take-It Donald. The one thing we know about Trump is that he can dish it out, but he can’t take it.